Staten Island Jewish community lacking UJA support

The absence of a UJA representative at Tuesday's meeting didn't sit well with Charles Greinsky, president of Congregation B'nai Israel in Bay Terrace, "It just further exacerbates the problem that we feel we're the forgotten borough and we shouldn't have to use a middleman, the OJCA, to communicate to UJA,"

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The UJA-Federation of New York was a no-show at a follow-up meeting to discuss the organization's controversial survey that showed a diminished, graying and increasingly secular Jewish population on Staten Island.

The study also claimed a higher percentage of participation in the JCC than membership at Island synagogues and a dramatic increase in the percentage of people who identified themselves as secular or non-religious.

At the Island response meeting of over 15 people at the JCC in Sea View on Tuesday, some of the borough's Jewish leaders continued not only to dispute the findings but also expressed overall dissatisfaction with the way the UJA treats Staten Islanders.

The Office of Jewish Community Affairs Staten Island sent e-mail invites for the follow-up session to the UJA representatives and others after the April 11 meeting at which the UJA revealed the results of its "Jewish Community Study of New York: 2011 Geographic Profile."

While the OJCA will be reporting back to the UJA Federation with the comments made at the response session, the absence of a UJA representative at Tuesday's meeting didn't sit well with Charles Greinsky, president of Congregation B'nai Israel in Bay Terrace.

"It just further exacerbates the problem that we feel we're the forgotten borough and we shouldn't have to use a middleman, the OJCA, to communicate to UJA," Greinsky said.

Greinsky said his synagogue and other Island groups with which he is affiliated were left off an e-mail list of leaders invited to participate in the development meetings for the UJA study.

Meanwhile, Greinsky added, "The UJA certainly knows how to send out requests for fundraising directly to congregants on Staten Island."

"It would have been nice if UJA was present at the OJCA meeting," said Bernie Kahn, president of Arden Heights Boulevard Jewish Center and a volunteer for the JCC.

As with some of the other synagogue leaders, his biggest gripe concerns UJA funding.

"My synagogue has gotten three grants in the last three years from the UJA and is applying for a fourth one this year; however, the grants themselves are a minimal amount of our operating budget," Kahn said.

"The JCC far and away gets a larger percentage of their operating budget from the UJA than any of the Staten Island synagogues, to my knowledge."

Rabbi Gerald Sussman also said that Temple Emanu-El and other small synagogues receive very little funding from the UJA and that much of the federation's funding goes to social service organizations.

"We're grateful for whatever help we get from the UJA but it's not much," Rabbi Sussman said. "The Staten Island synagogues are basically on their own."

He added that the federation training workshops for synagogues are difficult for Islanders to attend because they are held mostly during the day and in locations such as Manhattan or Long Island.

"We were not aware of any follow-up session on April 30," said Jennifer Rosenberg, Director of Research, UJA-Federation of New York.

"Had we known about it, we would have been happy to try to attend.

"UJA-Federation of New York works closely with almost 600 synagogues across the eight-county New York area," said Adina H. Frydman, Executive Director, SYNERGY: UJA-Federation of NY and Synagogues Together.

"All synagogues have equal access to apply for federation grants funding. Emergency funding for synagogues impacted by Hurricane Sandy was made equally available to all 80 synagogues impacted; a number of Staten Island synagogues applied and all that applied received funding."

A leader complained off the record that 13 percent of the UJA budget is spent on fund-raising and 9 percent on management and general operations while only 78 percent on grants and other programs. According to Irvin Rosenthal, Chief Financial Officer, UJA-Federation of New York regarding expenses for administration and fundraising, the UJA-Federation of New York meets or exceeds all criteria for a BBB-rated charity.